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"Wake" with Luke Vargas

By Talk Media News

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A weekly dip into the waters of foreign policy to consider how events overseas affect our shores. Hosted by Luke Vargas at U.N. Headquarters in New York. Nationally syndicated by Talk Media News.

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Clean47: The Real Crisis South of the Border

President Trump says the U.S. is facing a crisis at its southern border as tens of thousands of migrants wait to lodge asylum claims or attempt to pass into the U.S. illegally. But the real crisis driving that migration is thousands of miles south in...

President Trump wants out of Syria and his aides say the U.S. is keen to reassert itself as a liberating, not an occupying military force. Amid a push to wind down prolonged conflicts, should we expect an end to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan?...

We’re living in an age of migration. The U.N. reports more than 25 million people are seeking shelter from conflict worldwide, as millions more uproot their lives in search of opportunities that don’t exist in their home countries. Many of us...

The world witnessed two major leadership shakeups this week in Brazil and Germany, and both seem to signal personality politics are the flavor of the moment. This week we’ll talk to a Brazilian political scientists about that country’s new...

The Trump Administration just lowered its refugee admissions ceiling for the next fiscal year to its lowest number in 40 years, and that’s not the only change afoot. Christian refugees also appear to be getting precedence over Muslims fleeing...

On the heels of meetings with the leaders of Russia and North Korea, President Trump says he’s open to talking with Iran’s leaders without precondition. Curiously, that offer of face-to-face dialogue came just days after Trump threatened Iran’s...

Russian President Vladimir Putin bragged this week that a new generation of Russian nuclear weapons would be "years, and perhaps decades ahead of foreign analogues." Those comments follow a video presentation earlier this year in which new Russian...

Seated across from Kim Jong Un at a negotiating table in Singapore last week, President Donald Trump said he showed the notorious dictator a video of what a brighter North Korea could look like. The message of that video: there’s a prosperous...

For months, President Trump built up expectations that North Korea’s nuclear program could be quickly negotiated away in historic talks with Kim Jong Un in Singapore. But expectations have since shifted to talk of an agreement to end the Korean war,..

People power prevailed in Armenia in April, as mass demonstrators dislodged Prime Minister (and former president) Serzh Sargsyan, who changed the county’s constitution in a bid to remain in office. After a peaceful revolution, Armenia has a new...

Years of military efforts to destroy Boko Haram have failed to eradicate the terror group. Boko Haram continues to stage daring attacks, kidnap civilians and fuel a regional refugee crisis that's displaced hundreds of thousands. This week on Wake...

Just the word 'Russia' conjures up a range of loaded associations from Ukraine to collusion, Syria to election meddling, Sergei Skripal to nuclear weapons. The Cold War is over, but the U.S. continues to push Russia on a range of issues across the far..

Cuba recently underwent a historic presidential leadership change, turning the page on decades of rule by brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro with the election of Miguel Díaz-Canel. But far from being a shock to the system, Díaz-Canel is a party...

The idea for a global parliament, a citizen legislature, and the sovereignty of the human being dates back centuries. It’s an idea with roots in ancient Greece and the Roman Republic. It traces back to birth of the United States, the French...

From day one of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has directed his ire at Mexico and raised questions about the motives and character of Mexicans seeking a life in the United States. As President, that focus on Mexico has only intensified. Trump..

The headlines are filled with grave proclamations about the future of the European Union. Recent Italian elections swept eurosceptic parties into office, a vocal Front National in France is taking inspiration from President Trump while Eastern and...

Tourism is diplomacy. A single tourist may not move markets or drive political change, but tourism responds to the times, rising and falling along with political rhetoric, immigration policy and cultural shifts. This week on Wake we’re exploring...

Freedom around the world is in retreat as "democracy faces its most serious crisis in decades." This week on Wake we’ll try to get to the bottom of these worrying trends overseas and turn the focus on the U.S., to see what’s changing here at...

China’s young generation is large, fiercely competitive and tapped into global education, commerce and tourism. This dynamic cohort is coming of age as China itself reawakens from a 'Century of Humiliation' and increasingly drives the world economy...

United Nations peacekeeping is at a crossroads. Under threat, over-extended and beset by scandal, perhaps is it's no surprise the Trump Administration made the U.N. peacekeeping budget an early target of funding cuts. This week on Wake we'll ask if...

In 2015, the Panama Papers peeled back the lid on how the world's uber rich shelter money in offshore accounts. More revelations in 2017 known as the Paradise Papers showed us how little has changed. This week on Wake we're diving into the...

At every stop along President Trump’s state visit to Asia in November, he said the U.S. and its allies were stepping up pressure on North Korea. But months on, it seems not much has changed. In conversation with Cheon Seong-Whun this week we’re...

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has just returned from a big trip to Africa. She visited refugee camps South Sudan, famine victims in Ethiopia, and in Congo, she insisted that long-postponed elections finally be held. Upon her return to New York, she...

U.S. stock market keep on hitting record highs. New technology promises to make us more connected, as medical breakthroughs raise hopes of better, longer lives. And yet by most accounts global wealth is as concentrated as ever. the psychological...

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly last month he said Israel’s global standing has never been higher: “After 70 years, the world is embracing Israel, and Israel is embracing the world.” Netanyahu said...

Earlier this month, Facebook said it was handing over information about suspicious advertising purchases made on its network by Russian companies and individuals. The disclosure raises questions about whether the world’s largest social networks were..

From Hurricanes Irma to Jose to Maria, an active atlantic storm season has ravaged wide swaths of the Caribbean. The storms themselves receive wall-to-wall media coverage, but when they pass, the story of reconstruction quickly drops from the front...

In recent weeks, a military campaign by Myanmar’s Buddhist government in a remote corner of the country has displaced at least 400,000 people, most of them Rohingya Muslims. International observers are banned from visiting conflict areas, but there...

When the Iranian nuclear deal was signed two years ago in the summer of 2015, President Obama hailed the deal as preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, as a victory for multilateral diplomacy. The deal is technically still in effect, but...

Read, watch or listen to the news and you’re likely hear about a sanctions threat. With military action often too costly or politically unpopular, the sanction looms as the tool of choice to respond to events in North Korea, Iran, Russia or...

The Iraqi city of Mosul has been liberated from Islamic State control. Iraq’s Prime Minister walked through the rubble of the city streets and declared victory. But what’s next? Could another terror group spring up in the Islamic...

This month, 122 nations finished work on a nuclear weapons ban treaty. The goal, to rid the planet of nuclear weapons. The Cold War is over, but states with nuclear weapons remain very attached to their 15,000 warheads. Is it time to do away with...

In Central Africa, East Africa and in war-torn Yemen, tens of millions of people are on the verge of starvation. If you thought modern agriculture and a global economy would prevent famine, think again. So what are we doing wrong? Why can’t we...

After four years of talks, a brand new E.U.-Japan free trade deal is complete. With the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a US-EU trade deal on hold, and a protectionist U.S. President, what can we expect on the global free trade horizon? Is...

The Pentagon is said to be readying plans to send 4,000 new U.S. troops to Afghanistan, scaling up U.S. involvement there 16 years after the Afghan war began. But where is the public discourse about why the troops are needed?...

Earlier this year, an expert panel of the World Health Organization updated the Essential Medicines List, a collection of the most effective medicines used to treat the most prevalent health conditions. To save lives, extend life expectancies and...

Part two of a two-part look at the consequences of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. President Trump’s announced withdrawal from the Paris Agreement sent a strong signal about his administration’s priorities; if...

Part one of a two-part look at the consequences of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. The scientific consensus is that climate change will wreak havoc on the planet if unchecked. That’s why more than 190 countries signed..

There’s the Catholic Church, and then there’s the Holy See. A nation with diplomats in 183 countries — and they’re not sitting on their hands. From starting up talks between the U.S. and Cuba to trying to mediate the crisis in Venezuela, the...

Last weekend, President Trump visited Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip. King Salman welcomed Trump with a lavish reception. And when Trump gave a big speech on Islam, he lavished praise on Saudi Arabia for its anti-terror efforts and its...

Venezuela has descended into chaos. Thousands have been marching in the streets for weeks to protest President Nicolás Maduro, whom them accuse of trampling the constitution, using every means necessary to cling to power. All the while, inflation,...

Read up on solar energy prices and you’ll find a headline proclaiming record low rates for power generation. Renewable energy prices are becoming competitive with fossil fuels. On a given day, Germany generates most of its power from renewables....

The days of $100 a barrel oil are over. Since 2015, prices have hovered near $50 as oil producers keep pumping, often in a desperate bid to support government revenues. The new price landscape spells ruin for some, but opportunity for others. How...

As we speak, more than 150,000 troops are positioned in nearly 80 countries. Hundreds of U.S. bases serve as deterrents against adversaries, others as an assurance to allies, and still more as stops along a global military supply chain. What are...

For decades, the U.S. led a fierce campaign against the cultivation, distribution and sale of illegal drugs. In some states, and a select few countries, attitudes and policies have begun to change. But under a new U.S. administration, the war on drugs..

When Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Trump earlier this month, US strikes in Syria overshadowed their encounter. But there's far too much at stake for US-China relations to stay quiet for long, from the possibility of a trade war, to...